Westfield Local Heroes is a recognition and awards program that connects and enriches communities in Australia and New Zealand. The program discovers and celebrates individuals who make a positive impact to their local community and/or environment.

For further information on the Westfield Local Heroes program, click here.

Eddie Uini

Orange Sky
__Compassionate . Generous . Kind __

Once a week, Edward (Eddie) Uini would go out offering to pay laundromat fees for people sleeping rough. His aim was to emulate Australia’s Orange Sky mobile laundromat and shower service. He had been running his private charity for about six months when he phoned the Australian operation for advice. Luckily, their CEO was coming to Auckland the following week and they met. “We quickly realised our values lined up and we came up with a strategy to have a van in Auckland,” says Eddie, who is now the local operations manager.

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Lucy Shah Mohamady

Community Service Connect
__Aroha . Generous . Practical __

Lucy Shah Mohamady has been driven to help others since she was a young child. She is always on the lookout for practical solutions, which is what inspired her to start a charity, Community Service Connect Trust. Lucy and her team of volunteers make daily trips in their own vehicles to collect surplus food, non-food necessities and clothes to distribute out to people in need and encourage people of Aotearoa to engage in charitable acts. Lucy says; that “to strengthen our society, we need to start fixing within our homes and work outward into our communities we live in. People are the building blocks to society, and services are the mortar that bind the two”.

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Sarah Numan

Baby Loss
__Devoted . Inspirational . Passionate __

The lack of empathy Sarah Numan experienced after losing a baby has made her determined to help others through their grief. She does this through Baby Loss NZ, which provides tangible memories by taking hand and foot castings and creating stone replicas for bereaved families. She trained as a birth and bereavement doula to offer families full support before and during birth as well as afterwards in the memory making. “My dedication and passion have helped take the death of a baby from being a taboo topic into a socially accepted topic,” she says.

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Recognising all our 2019 nominees

We congratulate all of our finalists and nominees and recognise the important contribution they make to the local community.
View all of the finalists, nominees and their organisations

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